Lots of bike news - last weekend had two cycling one-day semi-classics in Belgium. The Omloop Het Nieuwsblad went Saturday, and Team Sky continued their great start as a new team (although they do have a epic budget backing them) with Juan Antonio Flecha pulling away with 15k to go to win over a loaded field. Heinrich Haussler (Team Cervelo) beat Tyler Farrar (Garmin) for second place. Flecha joins Edvald Boasson Hagen as Team Sky members with big wins already in 2010, and their Grand Tour guys like Bradley Wiggins are still just getting into shape...Team Sky couldn't replicate their success the next day during the brutal conditions (organizers cut the course by 20k during the race!) at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne despite getting another rider into the decisive break. This time it was Ian Stannard who represented Team Sky, but he was nipped at the finish line by Bobbie Traksel of Team Vacansoleil. Vacansoleil is a Dutch team that is now the home of the Feillu brothers (Romain and Brice - who have both each won Tour de France stages in the past couple of years riding for AgriTubel) and is starting to become a relevant cycling team. Congrats to them. Cervelo's Dominique Rollin, who was aiming for a top finish at this race, did finish 5th overall. A solid result but still not the breakthough podium finish in Europe all of his Canadian fans are hoping for!
Lance is currently racing during the 5-day Vuelta a Murcia in Spain. Bradley Wiggins is also racing here, which is merely a warmup race for some of the bigger races coming up in March and April. However, the rest of the main cycling peloton is gearing up for next week's Paris-Nice race. Starting Sunday, this race is 8 days long and goes from Paris south to Nice. It is nicknamed "The Race to the Sun" and this year is the 68th edition and promises to be a great 2010 kickoff event. It features a great number of Spanish riders, including Alberto Contador, Sammy Sanchez, Luis Leon Sanchez, Alejandro Valverde, Czech star Roman Kreuziger, Frank Schleck, the Americans Levi Leipheimer and Christian Vande Velde, along with Canadians Svein Tuft, Christian Meier and Dominique Rollin. It should be a great race to follow next week...
Speaking of Dominique Rollin and Team Cervelo TestTeam (Thor Hushovd and Carlos Sastre are the main stars on this team) - Cervelo has used the team to help develop a new bike model called the Project California. It is an uber-lightweight frame (only 700 g!) that will cost the bargain price of only $9600 US. Thats just for the frame. Yikes. Regardless, it is great to see a Canadian cycling company using their partnerships to develop new products...check out the video below...
On to triathlon...last week was the first Ironman race of 2009 - in bloody hot Malaysia. Although it was nice to see great results from Marino Van Hoenacker and Belinda Granger in winning the race, controversy occured post-race when the new WTC rules for pros left many of the Top 10 pros without a payday. Under 2010 rules, only those athletes that finish within 8 percent of the winner's time qualify for prize money. Because of the great races by Van Hoenacker and Granger, only 4 men and 2 women qualified for prize money (normally prize money went 5 deep). So 4 pros who deserved money went home empty-handed. And to top it off, the WTC didn't re-distribute their money to the qualified athletes. There was such an uproar over this that the WTC had to change their rules this week - so now the athletes who qualify for prize money will share the entire prize pool. There are similar new rules for pros to qualify for Kona spots (need to finish within 5% of winners time). It's getting harder to be a pro triathlete...
Today - actually currently going on right this second - is Ironman New Zealand. This race has been owned by New Zealand stars for a long time, with Cam Brown winning eight in a row in Taupo and Jo Lawn won 6 years in a row before losing to countrywoman Gina Crawford in 2009. This year, Terrenzo Bozzone (another Kiwi) will mount a serious challenge to Brown, while Lawn and Crawford figure to battle it out in the women's race. Good luck Kiwis!!
Two quick reads that end off this week - a new tri magazine is on the horizon. Coming in July, the new magazine will be called Lava, and is being developed by Ironman Corporation and the WTC to compete with Competitor Group's Triathlon Magazine and Inside Triathlon. It should be great to see a magazine that focuses on Ironman racing. And with a heavy-hitting group of ex-Triathlete Magazine editors and publishers, it should have ever shot of success....
Last triathlon note of the week - a nice preview of Canada's rising star Magali Tisseyre appeared this week. And along with continuing to race 70.3 races, it reveals that Magali is likely to make the jump to Ironman racing in 2010 (potentially Lake Placid in July). Can a Canadian Top 3 of Tereza Macel, Sam McGlone, and Magali take over Kona like Heather Fuhr, Lori Bowden, and Lisa Bentley did a decade ago?
I'll get to the running news du jour in a later post. As for the next swimming update, only 875 days until swimming becomes relevant again (London Olympics). The chances of a swimming world record being set without a speedskin is very low...but at least Michael Phelps made some Olympic headlines by hanging out with a Canadian hero...
See you next week...or sooner...
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